Festina Lente Estate Winery

Most Langley wineries are about grapes. This one is about bees.

Bill and Teresa Townsley bought a forested five-acre lot on 16 Avenue in 2010, with not so much as a fence on it. Bill started with a couple of beehives to help pollinate the farm, kept adding more, and the step from honey to honey wine was a short one. The winery opened in May 2017, across the road from Township 7. The name is Latin for “make haste slowly,” which is how they say they run the place.

What they pour

Mead is honey wine, and the shelf here runs well past the plain version:

• Melomels are made with fruit: blueberry, quince, pumpkin, strawberry-rhubarb, blackberry and cherry among them
• Metheglins carry herbs and spices, such as lavender, ginger and a semisweet spiced one
• Traditional meads are just honey, in a dry and a semisweet style
• A pyment (made with grapes) and a half-bottle maple acerglyn round things out

The winery says its style is drier than people expect. Bottles were $28.95 when we checked their shop, and several flavours were sold out, so call before you drive out for one in particular.

Visiting

They’re open daily, 11 to 6, with tastings indoors or on a covered, heated patio, so a rainy afternoon isn’t a problem. Tastings are $10, and groups of more than six pay a non-refundable booking fee that includes the tastings. If someone in your group isn’t drinking, leave them out of the booking and mention them in the note, as the winery asks.

In season there’s a food truck on weekends, April through mid-October. Live music and a summer fantasy faire have been part of the calendar this year, and last December had a Christmas open house with mulled mead. We can’t promise dates for next year, so check their Facebook page or website.

Call 604-510-2336 or book through the contact page. For the neighbours and the wider picture, see our Langley wineries guide, the longer Festina Lente page and things to do in rural Langley.